Pavithra Nagarajan '20 Receives SCU Diversity Works Award
Pavithra Nagarajan '20 (bioengineering) received an SCU Diversity Works Award presented to five students who thoughtfully articulated how diversity and inclusion is shaping their journey and values, and their commitment to making an impact in their future path and career. Here's what she had to say: "As a Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer, over 13 years I have been trying to understand an art that is deeply intertwined with Tamil culture, Hindu spirituality, and South Indian mythology. This rich landscape that I try to recreate to exist in the present during each performance, after understanding the hope and inspiration it once induced in the past, has shaped me to be more curious and open to the hidden stories of different ethnic groups. The key lesson from this art that I will take with me in my future career is that I must actively seek to listen to the words of the people I may serve through bioengineering, as an innovation could transform the only way of life that a society knows. In the future, I also hope to link the encoded patterns I may help find in genetics through computational methods, with underlying patterns linked by race or ethnicity."